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Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=4RJv04Q0Ajs

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Thank you all for coming to our uh budget workshop. The second of these we're having this budget season. Uh no votes taken today. Um fortunately, Commissioner Tinder will not be with us this afternoon. Uh Commissioner Pero may be joining us here soon, but uh the

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other three of us will try to keep it to a dual roar as we get started. So, uh, Kiki is driving this today. Um, so I will I got you, mayor. [clears throat] >> Go for it. >> All right, Harold.

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So, we got our third budget workshop of for fiscal year 27 today. Um we met the other day or a few weeks ago and um kind of laid the groundwork of where we were would be uh based on our first strategic workshop we had. Um second workshop we

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kind of utilized that that if we went all in just like we discussed at the strategic workshop what our deficit would be, what the millillage would have to be and where the city would go from that. Um so we've gone back and adjusted a few things to present to the commission. Once we get to the end of

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the workshop today, we're going to lay out some dates um that you all will have to vote on for the millillage se ceiling for the year for the trim notice um and when the final uh budget will be adopted in September, as well as scheduling our next workshop after this one. The next

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workshop, as we've all discussed individually, um we'll discuss our staffing of where we're going to be fiscal year 27. Uh so today we're going to go over most of the capital stuff. Um what we've cut so far to be able to get to where we are today and what will not

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happen in fiscal year 27 as far as purchases. So based on Governor Dantis' um law that he signed into effect the other day, this is where we would stand based on the new mill uh laws. A 3 to2 vote, we would have a 3.9707

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millage rate with a deficit of one $1,472,000. A 4:1 vote at a 4.367 millillage, a deficit of $794,000. And to break even, we would have which

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would require unanimous vote, our millage would have to be a 4.8306. Now, keep in mind, we haven't got to the cut to present to the cuts yet. that is cuts of general fund items, capital services and staffing um which we will

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address in the slides later on. And also the millillage if we kept the millillage the same of 4.05 which I didn't put in the slide our deficit would be negative $1,375,000 in the ballpark. So where we are today, there is

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absolutely no capital improvement projects in in the general fund for fiscal year 27. That includes any expansions, the multi-use fields we talked about, any of the equipment purchases except a frier for the sports and wreck. It's an $8,000 frier. We do

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feel it will make its money back in the concessions. So we're not worried about the the $8,000 equipment purchase there. There are no vehicle purchases in fiscal year 27 for the general fund. One dilemma that does cause is we have several vehicles that have over 100,000 miles and we've got a vehicle

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replacement plan, but we will not be able to stick to that plan for fiscal year 27 the way the numbers fall. Since the last meeting, we have implemented a hiring moratorum on the general fund positions unless they're critical positions like if we had a

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firefighter leave or a police officer leave or one of our critical general fund positions. Um, but there is a hiring moratorum on the general fund. There will be no proposed COLA for fiscal year 27, but we do have implemented the first year of the salary

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study and our training and travel has been reduced significantly to only cover the necessary requirements and needs. Um, most of the travel has been removed from the budget, the police and fire and some of our other departments that have their necessary training. That money is still in there, though it has been

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reduced from what we originally presented. Do you all have [clears throat] >> do y'all have this uh implement first year of salary study? Do you already have that nailed down yet? >> We have a general number, but not it's

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not dead on our next workshop. We hope to have all the staffing um to present to you. >> Okay. >> For the proposed cola, when you say no proposed cola, does that mean not just the employees but us, the commission, and yourself? Is this any

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manager? >> Yes. No one will be receiving the COA. The only salary increases would be if they're part of the first year salary study implementation. There may be some employees that are not in that first year implementation that their salary was already where they need to be, but there are some that that would be

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affected in that first year. We've also got some proposed changes. Some of these are more of a long-term effect as well. um reducing our leave acrual structure which will reduce the long-term liability, eliminate the PTO buyback program and reducing our paid

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holidays from 13 to 11 which will reduce overtime pay. The estimate on the two holidays if we cut those would save about $22,000 for the year. It's an estimate of about 11 grand. It's not a huge savings but it is longterm. It adds up. Um and then our

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PTO buyback, we have a $200,000 estimate of savings there. If we eliminate that program, we are the only municipality that offers a PTO buyback um program. Now, >> what two holidays would you be cutting? >> That is to be decided. Um it could be

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the day after Christmas. It could be um Good Friday, Junth, um the day after Thanksgiving. It just really depends. Um but it's up to the commission. Gotcha. Some other proposed changes we have um would be to eliminate our retirement

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bonus, to eliminate the longevity bonus, and eliminating the part-time employees receiving benefits. They would have to that's anyone that's under 32 hours a week. We have some that we would increase their hours to 32 hours a week. Um but most of the part-time employees

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would lose their benefits. And then in the numbers that I presented to you of what our deficit is, we have removed every event from the city budget. If we receive a sponsorship 90 days prior to the proposed event, we will present the

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sponsorship to the commission. And if you all decide to accept it, then we will have the event. July 4th would be the one-off for that with 180 days because it does take more to plan that event. Um, also in the communications and marketing budget, there's about a

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$10,000 uh line item for holiday decorations. That line item is still in there, but that is a discussion today. We've had both positive and negative feedback on holiday decorations. Do we want to continue decorating this facility for Christmas or do we want to

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cut the $10,000 from the budget? Commissioner Morgan, I know you had some thoughts and from our discussions on the sponsorships as well. >> Yeah. So, this is something me and Mr. Lightfoot have been uh discussing and you know, we've talked about sponsorships and public private

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partnerships for quite a while and really haven't done anything more than what we typically do every year. And I just thought this would be a good idea to uh to do this to kind of see kind of push and urge uh businesses and sponsors

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to kind of help with these type of things. And I think that would help with that program. As far as sponsorships, I know one of the other things we discussed was uh using the community services board um to kind of try to help go find those sponsors um [clears throat]

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using uh especially with the the two um seats, proposed seats. I don't know if we end up determining whether we're going to do that or not, but um using their uh network and knowledge to kind of try to help uh finding those sponsors for those events. Not that we don't want

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to do the event. It's this is a as I said before, this is a this is a tough time and um we're going to make some tough decisions and uh we kind of got to get out of our our comfort zone on this. So, I think

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this is one of those areas. And I will add on to that um there was a business owner that reached out to Commissioner Peebles probably two weeks before July 4th, maybe the week before. um he and I were able to meet yesterday. He has agreed to to sponsor the dog park for

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the year. Um it was $2,500 sponsorship. Um it will help cover some of the expenses of the dog waste bags. I mean though $2,500 isn't a huge hit when you look at a negative $1 million deficit. It's a great gesture and good for his

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business as well. Um so we will gladly accept that donation and put that money towards that. And when we say 90 days and the 180 days prior, that means not when we start advertising. That's we'll probably be advertising. I think we figured like a year ahead of time or so.

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And then 90 days prior is like the deadline when we need to get everything. If we don't get enough funding for it, then we can have the discussion of do we want to still have the the event but like descope it a little bit or just do away with the event altogether. Um, I

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know originally we discussed 120 days for the July 4th, but now we went to 180. Is that for the firework? >> Yes, sir. It makes more sense to have that 180 days with the fireworks planning, um, the logistics of the parade, concerts, um, the stage, everything it takes to go into that. >> May I add to that, please? So, I have

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preliminary numbers for the July 4th event. Not all the receipts have been uh turned into finance. Uh however uh this number will only go up. The city spent $126,000

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on July 4th. We received contributions and sponsorships for $15,750 which means the net cost to the city was $110,849.50. So, [clears throat] fourth of July, we would need

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sponsorships to break even of approximately $125 to $150,000. And that is something too that the commission would have to decide is do you want to does the sponsorship need to only include the the hard cost as far as, you know, the concerts and the the

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parade and the fireworks and that kind of stuff and the city absorb the overtime cost and staffing cost? or do we want to give a price and say, "Hey, we've got to cover all of the overtime expense and all of the staff expense for the sponsorship as well." That is some direction we would ask from you all.

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>> Was that 126? Did that in include the overtime and stuff or was that just >> Yes, sir. Your overtime is approximately $43,000. >> And what did you get in donations for the 15.2K? [clears throat] >> 15,750.

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>> Okay. And what was that? Was that someone donated a check? >> $5,000 checks from Panhandle [clears throat] Engineering, Deubberry Engineer, CBC Construction, and then whatever the other small amounts were. >> I know. This is the way I look at it is

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um trust me, I enjoy the July 4th parade and the events. I can't wait to break back out the George Washington costume, but um if we're spending over $40,000 in overtime,

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I'd rather try to get sponsors to kind of make up for that and and use that $40,000 towards other things for employees. That's kind of how I see it. Cuz if we're going to spend $40,000 on this and yet if we end up going with all

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these other proposals of, hey, we're going to not have cost of living adjustment and things like that, what kind of message are we sending to our employees? That's kind of the way I'm look at it. >> Gentlemen, any thoughts you want to share? >> Well, I like the idea rather than just

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being like last time when we just basically cut two events. We're not just cutting cut cutting events. We're changing our model, which is good. We're saying we're these events are scheduled. If you want to see them, we need sponsorships rather than just saying,

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"Hey, this year we're not going to have Easter egg hunt because of budget cuts." You know, we're just saying they're scheduled. Depending on how much sponsors we get, that's how great the event's going to be. So, >> well, we already had cut Easter egg hunt

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beforehand, but if someone wants to bring it back, you know, >> and to finish up on that slide too, I would say the the retirement bonus and the longevity bonus, they are not policies. Um, that's just been a long-standing practice the city had. Um,

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there is no policy that the commission will have to adopt or change uh to eliminate that. That is just something that we will be eliminating uh to help save cost. for our storm water this year. Uh we will be bringing you all a 3% proposed increase. Um it's following the same as

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last year. Our revenue projections to follow hopefully at our next workshop. Uh but that is staying along the same lines as Stantech discussed um for fiscal year 26. It was scheduled to be a 3% increase this year. for sanitation. Back in 2019, Stantech

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did a study and recommended a $12.88 monthly charge for yard debris pickup. That was never implemented. Um the table below shows if it had been implemented, what revenue we would have taken in every year. Um I did exclude the senior

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garbage on this. So that number, the seniors would not have um been charged the $12.88. So, this number does not reflect them. Um, we are going to request either this charge or a charge to be added. It doesn't have to be called a yard debris

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pickup fee. Um, it can just be added on to the sanitation rates, but we have not raised those rates in at least 6 years. And the sanitation budget is is reflecting that. Um, we will finish in the red in that. We still have some some reserve money for sanitation, but that

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reserve is dwindling heavily every year um because we have to dip into it to to cover the sanitation expenses. >> So, do you have a slide? So, [clears throat] we can deep dive into that piece because those are enterprise funds, right? So, those are those are particularly kind of subsectioned out

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from the general fund. >> So, deep dive into what part the the >> Well, you said we're running red and sanitation. So, how much and for how long? So, the past three years we finished in the red. I believe this year we will be 490,000 I believe was our

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number. Don't hold me to that. Um, in the red and we had just over 3 million in reserves and sanitation. >> If you give me just a moment, please. >> Sure. >> Now, sanitation has no debt. Everyone understands that. So, that's the

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component that I always say. You can't just look at one number. Sanitation does not have any debt. Today, sanitation department has $3,300,000. They will uh that number will diminish

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at the end of the year by about a half a million dollars. So, at the end of the fiscal year, we'll have something shy of $3 million in the sanitation. >> Okay. uh staff direction. So, you all approved the resolution uh for the consolidation

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of services. We have been working with Bay County and other municipalities to investigate that. Um we've met with the county um establishing a game plan on on that. You all did receive a letter from Mayor Branch from Panama City and then a response from uh Chairman Peace from Bay

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County. Um at this time, we just don't have enough information to do the summit as suggested by Mayor Branch. Uh but once we work through that, we will likely bring back that summit discussion for all of the commissioners or all of the commissions to at least designate a representative and possibly meet. Uh but

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we are looking at the consolidation of services and what that long-term savings would be, especially if the property tax is changed in November. Um and that includes, you know, fire, uh police, public safety, animal control, and any other things uh that we can do there.

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The next workshop will discuss our staffing efficiency. Um it is very likely that there's going to be a furlow and reduction in forest of employees for fiscal year 27. Um that is what our next workshop is is going to be heavily revolved around. Um we are looking at

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outsourcing of certain tasks whether it's culvert installations, asphalt repairs. We're looking at residential garbage pricing, janitorial services, etc. Um though all of these may not be cheaper to outsource, we are looking at numbers just so that we can present to

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the commission um different avenues of possibilities even though there are some that the private sector may not be able to do cheaper than we can. Of course, shopping our liability insurance costs and we will be bringing a restructure of benefit plans for

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employees. um we may have to present this year of employees may have to pay a little bit more of their insurance costs for for health insurance. Um we've got the numbers back. It looks like it's going to be a a 0% increase for health insurance. Um but a way to save some

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money would be to restructure that so that the employees have to pay a little bit more of their health insurance premiums. And then for our dates, uh we do need some direction for our next budget uh workshop. Before I go on though with the dates,

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some other areas to save money that we would like some direction or some discussion on today. Our cemetery plots we sell for $1,000 per plot. We have about 420 of those plots left. Um they're for city residents only. Um staff is reaching out to other areas. I

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believe Panama City is the only other municipality with a cemetery. We checked in 2023 and they did not have anything available at that time to compare pricing to. If you compare pricing to the private sector, Kent Forest sells they have own multiple cemeteries and they sell theirs anywhere from 5 to

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seven grand. We have we don't want to get to those prices. We're not asking for that, but we are looking for possibility of increasing those uh sale prices a little bit. Um once it's a one-time deal, once we sell it, we don't collect any more money for the

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cemeteries and we do have annual costs associated with keeping those cemeteries up. We looking um at a company that will perform lean searches for us. Um I've received it the city of Callaway and the city of Springfield recently went in under contract with this company. I've

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received the information, sent it to legal for review. Uh they will charge $120 per lean search. They will give us $100 per and they will keep $20 per. Um we do sometimes 10 to 15 per week. You may not have any the next week. The

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numbers vary, but that is a way that we may generate a little bit of revenue. Um some other costs are our senior center. We provide paper products, coffee, copier,

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um, internet, which I believe the internet and utilities is included in our agreement, but the paper products, the coffee, the creamer, the sugar, everything we provide them is not. We provide that. It's about a $10,000 a year expense um that we could potentially save or pass those costs on

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to the senior center. We've rented them the building for a dollar a year for 20 years, I believe it is. Um so there is no revenue generation from the senior center. We've done research on the splash pads. A lot of the we've had a lot of discussion on charging admission for

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splash pads. Um there are very few places that charge admissions for splash pads. Unless the splash pad is connected to another aquatic facility, whether it's a community pool, um, or, you know, water park, most of your splash pads that are

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municipal owned, they do not charge any any revenue. And if you were, it would be minimal. You would very likely just be a wash and what staff time and and the expenses would be on that revenue. So, it's not a huge revenue generator that we're missing out on there.

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As of July 1st, we had made $11,650 in garden rental revenue from the garden club. Um, our biggest expense in this facility is the janitorial services. We do provide the utilities and the internet there. Um, Justin did increase the fees back in February when you all

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increased the fee schedule. Um, so he's estimating about a 30% increase in that revenue next year. Um, rental revenue for the senior center as of July 1st was $3,850. And like I said, we say we spend about $10,000 a year estimate on on supplies

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over there. Um, we did have a $23,000 expense there this year for flooring, but it is our responsibility for maintenance of the building. So, that is not something that we could have passed on. Staffing And we covered events already. Is there anything else? Any questions anyone has

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on on that topic? >> But you rent the senior center on the weekend when they're not using it. >> Yes, sir. We do. And we've generated [clears throat] um $3,850 as of July 1st in the senior center rentals. Um the garden club is our major

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um spot for rentals and we've we've made just over 11 grand in that or just under 12 grand. >> What did the garden club do last year? >> Last year in rentals. >> Well, I mean, yeah. What kind of revenue does the garden club produce for >> less than 20k in in revenue?

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>> Senior center is a bigger spot. You could probably land it. That one doesn't rent as much as the garden club. The garden club rents about every weekend if you pass by it. It's rented out in full. >> Um I mean, yes, we could go up on that rent. Again, I I don't think it would

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hinder anyone from renting it. Um but again, we're not going to make enough on the rental of that to to cover the entire budget on it. One thing we could do is us as a commission, but also maybe something for Tai and River, is go on a marketing

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campaign of things that we have available to rent because I'm sure there's quite a few people out there that don't even know that we have facilities to rent. And so that will even if that brings in a few extra thousand dollars. I mean it's not going

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to take much time to create a graphic and and uh start a campaign of periodically advertising. It doesn't cost us anything other than manh hours. So and for us doesn't cost the commission anything other than your time. So

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yes, one one other thing I wanted to cover with sports and wreck. um we would need about $670,000 a year in sponsorships or field rentals to cover half of the salaries and the sports program expenses. Our midyear

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budgets showed a revenue of approx of just under $270,000. So, we are still $400,000 short in that meeting half of that um just to cover half of the expenses of salaries and and the requirements.

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And then like I said, the dates before you on this slide, um calendar, um max millage approval is Tuesday, July 28th at the next meeting. And then our tenative budget approval will be September 8th at 5:30 and then the final September 22nd at 5:30.

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The 28th is just is this going to be any different than what we've done in the past where it's just like a max trim? >> No, sir. It's just the max that the millage can be for the the year. >> Okay, >> like we've always >> So, are you looking for [clears throat]

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a third budget workshop? uh date to be nailed down or >> Yes sir. We would like that budget workshop if we if everyone is available August 6 at 3 would be one recommendation. >> What day is that? >> Thursday

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I believe. >> Would you want to try to line it up with the the day we got to set the millillage the 28th of July or is that too soon? No sir, because the next one is going to be staff discussions and we need some time internally to to discuss with staff

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before that workshop hits. [clears throat] >> Is August 6 doable for y'all gentlemen? >> Yeah. already on my calendar. >> Sink house. >> Hey Dale. Yeah, let's let's book the

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sixth then 3 o'clock. >> Yes, sir. part of that too. I mean, we've had some um some discussions. I mean, uh Ben and I met with the EDA yesterday um about [clears throat] potentially, you know, having to cut the the 30 just over

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$30,000 expense that we we do every year to be a member of the EDA. Um there are a lot of small programs such as that that we will likely have to cut for fiscal year 27. Um it's like I said the the next workshop when we discuss staffing. Um there are things like the

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EDA membership or other memberships that will be cut first uh before we get to that. But there are many many things that have already been cut out of this budget to get to where the numbers are on on the millillage slide here.

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this uh these 32 vote, 41 vote, 50. Is that on the max the max millillage vote or is that on the final vote? >> The max could be the 50. >> No, sorry. Is that the July 28th >> date? No. >> Yes.

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>> We on July 28th I have to submit the maximum millage that you will allow for next year. >> And that's this slide right here. That's what this is telling you is if only three of you agree,

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we can only uh use the roll back rate. If four of you agree, we can go up to 4.367. If you all agree, we can go above that. >> That That's for the one on July 28th or

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when we do the final vote. >> July 28th. I need to know what the maximum millig will allow for 27. >> Well, if that's the hard date, then [clears throat] we need to uh push this third workshop up before then because if

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we're looking at bottom line cuts, we're trying to nail down all the big rocks, all the big muscle movements, uh, and we're trying to get to a hard bottom number. We need to have that done before the millage rate.

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>> So the millillage that you're voting on the 28th though is not what the millillage will be. It's just the max that it can be. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. So I when I first came on the commission, this was weird. So weird to me. So basically what happens is you're

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required by law to send out a trim notice to the to the residents to say this is the max that we can raise your millillage this year. Almost every single year that we've done this, that number has been higher than

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what we actually vote on for the millage rate to be. So like for example, a few years ago, we sent out a max millage rate of 4.3, but we voted on a 4.1 >> because that's just how it works. I don't know. It's the law. So this number

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that we're voting on on the 28th, there's like a probably a 90% chance, if not higher, that it's going to be different than that number. It just can't go above that number. >> So you have to give me guidance as to what you will allow as the maximum

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millage. It's the ceiling. We cannot go above that. You can only go below. So to my mind, you want to air on the side of increasing the millillage as much as you possibly can and then we will reduce as

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we identify further cuts. So, let's say we agreed to 4.05 on July 28th, but then later we're like, "Oh crap, we need 4.367. Can't do that." >> Correct. >> Okay.

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>> Sure. Kiki, for uh the benefit of the audience as well as the commission and anyone watching at home, give us a real quick rundown on what you mean by the roll back rate. So the roll back rate is

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generates the same dollars as the rate that we're charging this year. So the millage this year is 4.05, but all of our property values have increased. Our homes are worth more this year than they were last year. Mhm.

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>> So to have the homeowner pay the exact same amount of dollars, you reduce the millillage to what is referred to as the roll back rate. >> Gotcha. >> So the 3.9707 would bring the city the exact amount of

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dollars we received this year. Not accounting for inflation, but bottom line, if your home's worth 20,000 more this year, it takes less of a millage to get the same tax dollar. >> Exactly. Correct. Yes, sir.

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>> Everybody tracking with that? >> It's George W. Bush would call that fuzzy math, but you know, it it goes a lot back to the homestead exemption, too. Yeah. >> Limiting limiting your home going up to 3% per year. >> Yeah. >> That kind of follows about the same. The

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math is pretty close. >> Yeah. >> And mayor, I put on that slide too, the chart to the right um that just shows the historical millage rates um just so everyone would have a a reference of what the millillage has been over the past 10 years.

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>> And uh I think it it's worth noting here in 2024 2025 it remained at 4.05 5, but with the inflationary cost, especially fuel, um that actually drove a quite a negative impact on the budget. Do you

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want to speak to that at all? >> Well, I mean, you're right. I mean, inflation did, but also we didn't have the disaster bond debt service affecting the general fund at that time like it is today. It >> was about 2 million. We ended up being

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in the red there, right? With extra with the fuel cost uh for 2025. >> I'm sorry, Mary. >> How much did we end up being down when fuel spiked uh with inflationary? I know

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in 2024 as well as 2025, but we we maintained the millage rate. What kind of impact did the inflationary cost actually hit on our bottom line overall for the general fund? Is it about $2 million? >> Our deficit was around 2.8 last year.

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>> 2.8. Okay. >> 2.8. [clears throat] It was just about the amount of the debt service payment. That was our goal was to balance the budget with the exception of the debt service payment. >> Okay. >> So 2.8 million. >> I stand correct. It was higher than I thought. I was thinking it was about

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two, but 2.8. >> [clears throat] >> Correct. >> Okay. Any other questions, gentlemen? >> That's the number I was hoping it was going to be this year, but it's not. >> I know um the financial review board looked at um what do you call it?

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Refunding the bond and didn't sound like that was advantageous to do. >> Not at this time. >> Not at this time. at after November when we see what property tax does possibly, but our rates are very good uh compared to today's rates. >> Speaking of the financial review board,

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are they coming to provide any recommendations or inputs as well budget-wise? >> Uh they received quite a bit of information at the last meeting. They've requested another meeting um

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because based on our normal schedule, they wouldn't meet again until after all of this was finalized. They're going to meet on uh August 17th at 8:00 in the morning. It's a Monday. Um and we will

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discuss further. I gave them a a many reports about the bond and the cash flow and we discussed if the the information we received about uh refunding the bond.

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Um they did get a a brief description of where we were at with the budget for 27 and that it was entirely possible we were going to have to raise the millillage. Again, that's in your hands. It depends on how you vote.

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Um, but [clears throat] the numbers that I have right now, fuzzy math. They are fuzzy math because I do not have good revenue numbers. As of today, the state does not publish their revenue numbers until the latter part of

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July. Sometimes it's sorry, latter part of August. Sometimes it's as late as early September. So, I'm using historical data and I'm just doing the best I can with what I've got right now. But these numbers are going to change one way or

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another depending on the economy, depending on the state, depending on how we all react to what's going to happen in November. Uh there are a lot of moving parts to this. So, when we quote you these numbers and what the budget is today, I want you to be fully aware that

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these numbers are going to change. We have done my way of thinking an extraordinary job of cutting and there's going to be some ramifications but frankly this is what we owe our citizenry is our due diligence. Um we

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should not be we should not take any type of millage rate increase willy-nilly. Um this should be done with the utmost sincerity and transparency and we cannot times are tough especially

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with our seniors and folks with fixed incomes. We can't go, hey, we want to raise your millage rate without doing every possible thing to reduce cost and figure out how can we can belt tighten

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and belt cinch um before we even go the millage rate. And it sounds like y'all are doing that. We've got a whole third workshop to do to discuss that potential personnel reductions and how and all

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those details. Um, but I appreciate the the due diligence and the the very serious nature of this. This is not fun and but this is this is governance. This is sausage making and

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we owe it to the citizens to be good stewards of the tax dollar to the utmost degree. >> Any other thoughts, gentlemen? Do you think we need to have two workshops in August? >> We likely will. Yes, sir. Especially

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after the first one. Um, we will ask for another workshop before you all vote, start voting in September. >> Plan that now. >> That would be great. >> Might as well. >> So, 6 of August is the first Thursday.

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Um, you want to do it in the 21st of August. How much time do y'all need in between the two workshops? >> So, our work will be nearing completion at the next workshop. Um, it will be at

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that point it will be information that you all have and direction to give us. Um, so it's how much d how much time will you all need in between the next two workshops? >> I don't think we need a whole lot of time. We could piggy back one to the

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next if y'all are good with it. say the next week and not having to wait two extra weeks. >> I propose 21 August >> if we do the first I'm going to have to call in. I can call in, but I won't be I won't be here locally.

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Um but I'm willing to do that. I have no problem calling in. I just won't be able to be here. I'm gone that entire week for work. So, >> if um or we could do it on the 25th before the

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next commission meeting or before that commission meeting. >> Yeah, I'm good with that. >> At 3:00 on the 25th. >> What day is the 21st? >> That's a Friday. >> Friday. >> That's the week um the 18th is the primary.

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>> Yeah, we could do either. We could come in that Friday the 21st like you recommended Jamie or the following week. Uh >> I'm good with the 25th if you guys are good with that. >> Any preference, gentlemen? >> I think a couple hours would be more than enough. >> Yes, sir. That would be more than enough.

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>> 25th. >> All right. >> 3 p.m. >> Now, one related topic. So, this third budget workshop, we're going to be talking about potential or recommended position cuts and all of that. >> So, this is the third. That'll be Yes. That'll be the fourth. Yes.

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>> So, >> so the position cuts is the fourth. Is that what you just said? >> Which is this is the third. That'll be the fourth workshop was talking about position. >> You're counting the strategic >> as number one. That's correct. >> Okay. I was thinking >> Yeah. No, that's what I asked uh

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Commissioner War ear earlier. I was like, is the third one? >> Yeah. >> But technically with the strategic I was like, okay. >> Well, you count that. But okay. Um, as far as this next one goes, I'm just trying to be mindful and thoughtful of our, uh, potential city employees whose

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jobs may be on the chopping block here. So, um, how much situational awareness will they have at that point when we're publicly discussing Johnny and Jane may be losing their jobs in X department? >> We will have met with everyone internally that will be affected before

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that. Okay. Any other thoughts or questions, gentlemen? If not, I'll open up to the floor. I just hate this freaking law, man. Is like the the millillage law because we

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can't talk about our votes. You know what I'm saying? It's illegal. So, if I was to say like I really think it should be 4.3, I I'm not gonna be like, "All right, who's voting yes?" So I can vote no, you know, cuz what you I hate this. It's

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not. But anyways, I'm just venting. >> Yes, sir. And I will email out this uh this PowerPoint that you all can reference to so you all have it after today. >> Okay. Pat, you got anything, sir?

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No. Well, I'll open up to the floor. I know first one's going to be Johnny, so if you want to sit down, we can bring you a mic. All right. Good to see you up and around on that. >> I'm not very compliant to my doctor's orders. Um, a couple things. The I'm on

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the finance committee and we did meet and we considered the millage rates, but at that point in time, there was not enough information where we're waiting for this meeting to occur and some other information to become available before before it was thought that it would be appropriate for the finance committee to

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make a solid recommendation on something like that. But we scheduled that meeting on the 18th so we could meet prior to y'all having to vote on the final millage rate. Um, and I'm I'm saying that I'm not necessarily the representative for the finance committee, but I was there and that's

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where we went. Um, the other thing I would like to say is, you know, as you cut cuts are going to be across the board, but keep in mind you you're looking at the senior center and it was 10,000 that you pay for the sen senior center. We pay over a million

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a year for for youth sports in the sports center. The only thing that we do for the seniors is the senior center. So, please keep that in mind for the seniors. Um, I know we have to cut everywhere, but just we need to be cognizant of the services that the city's providing here and there. Thank

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you. >> Hey, Johnny, before you go sit down, uh, completely agree with you. Uh, that's probably the last $10,000 I would cut from the city budget is for our seniors. Um we the least we can do for them is that. But my question for you is if you

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need to sit down, go ahead. But >> um um what are your thoughts on the the city financial services board actually coming in meeting with the commission? Do y'all want to actually have a sit down eyeball to eyeball workshop and discussion with us?

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>> Um I can't answer for them. Uh it to me it would probably be beneficial, but I can't answer for the finance committee. Um it I mean we're looking at a lot of the same things that y'all are going to have to look at, but um we're we've not been charged with that as a committee that

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that's the recommendation we need to make or that that's something that we have to do. Um so that's something that if the commission directs it, I'm sure the finance committee would be more than happy to meet with you to do a work do workshop. >> Please take that back to your teammates

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that we'd really like to get y'all's thoughts and inputs here. We charge y'all to to oversight and work with Kiki on this. And >> um can you direct Chris to do that because I can't comment >> but no amongst >> sure when you're at your next meeting um

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I'd really like to get inputs. These are our financial being >> typically the chair will either the chair himself or someone else will come and address the commission prior to the budget. So that's something that's already typically done. >> Yeah. Let's please do that. We we ask y'all to do due diligence and oversight

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here. The least we can do is make sure we're tracking with your opinions and thoughts and recommendations as well. >> Okay. Yeah. I would think Chris could get the chair to send something to the chair to >> Thank you for that effect. >> No, thank you, Johnny. >> Mhm. >> Anybody else got any thoughts today?

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Kind of has a whole Irish Wake vibe in here minus the alcohol. Right. But >> yeah, exactly. You got it. >> Good deal, >> sir. >> No, sir. Before we wrap up, I would

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just, you know, ask um to consider too before the next workshop. Um just some direction of you know, like this the events. Is that something that you all want us to to keep out of the budget like that with the sponsorship um theory in mind, the holiday decorations, um the

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sanitation rates? we will we will be bringing you all a proposed sanitation rate. Um it may not be July 28th meeting but likely the first meeting meeting in August. That way we can kind of plan for that one. Um and if we get can get it done by July 28th we will just so we can

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the earlier the better. Um but any other thing too that that you all see from either today's presentation or you know meetings that that we've had oneonone um please let us know before the next workshop so that we can ensure we incorporate it. Speaking of uh sanitation,

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how difficult would it be to send someone around and double check that people are paying for their second trash can. >> They do that quite consistently. Um Dustin, who is our sanitation

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supervisor, is very good at checking on that. Um so we constantly get calls that that rise to to me of, hey, they took our can um and they haven't they've had a second can for a year. they haven't paid for. Um, so he does a very good job

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uh of auditing those and ensuring people are paying for what they're supposed to be. >> That's what the cameras are for. >> That does help. Yes, sir. Most of the time it's when people call and say they forgot to put their garbage out and they check the camera then realize they had two cans and then he verifies on the

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bill that they don't. So, a lot of time it's people calling in on themselves actually. But Dustin does a great job of that. [laughter] So, circling back here, um what do you need guidance on commissionwise that you have asked for but we haven't given you

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today? The um the Fourth of July festivity, which is kind of our our big big thing, right? That's that's something to wrestle on on how we're going to do that. I think we're all still trying to mle over what to do there. >> I would just say after today, you know, I will email this presentation out so

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you all can read it and review it. Um, but if there's anything that we discussed today as far as the events or the sanitation rates, um, or eliminating some of the programs or re some of the this is policy stuff that you all will have to vote on anyway. U, but if there's anything that is not related to

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that that that you don't think is going in the right direction, um, let's definitely talk about it at the July 28th meeting um, or the workshop on August 6th. Well, I guess the uh core philosophical lens here is what do we do as a city?

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Our very core services are to protect our citizens, our police, our fire, our rescue, um even our animal control. Uh and then our public works, the did the toilets flush, storm water drain, you know, all of that. Those are our very

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very core functions as a city. utility services. Um, anything beyond that is gravy effectively. Quality of life, very important things for sure. But we we've got to figure out that right balance. And

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I don't know that we're there yet, but y'all are y'all have made a heck of a dent in the looking at all the options and trying to come up with here's how I think we can thread the needle. I appreciate the due diligence here and it's probably going

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to get less fun before it gets better, but and we're all in the rowboat together here. Anybody else got any thoughts, questions, inputs before we wrap up? Ber,

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you know what that's a reference to, right, Sam? >> Yes, >> absolutely, brother. All right. Any commissioners? Y'all got anything out? City manager? >> No. All right. Ready break.